Coffee seizes the market busy chinchilla, zoo and other theme cafes swept in

Since Starbucks, the real cafe, entered China in 1999, coffee, a drink with attractive fragrance and slightly bitterness, has come into the real life of consumers. With the development of the market and the replacement of brands, the cafe has already undergone a qualitative change from its original form. According to statistics, there are nearly 15000 cafes in the country, who can go further in the fierce market competition.

Shangdao Coffee, as a first-generation cafe, feels a bit like dusk.

The first time Chinese people come into contact with coffee is to watch foreigners holding coffee cups and spoons on TV. At that time, the cafe was too far away for ordinary people. However, with the rapid development of Shangdao Coffee, Dior Coffee and Cross-Strait Coffee, cafes have become a part of consumers' lives. Shangdao Coffee, which developed in inland China in 1997, expanded rapidly in the form of a chain, and before Starbucks entered, it had occupied 90% of the Chinese coffee shop market.

Strictly speaking, Shangdao Coffee and other coffee shops should belong to the first generation of cafes, with an area of about 500 square meters. The products include not only coffee, but also pot-filled scented tea, including all kinds of rice, specialties, snacks, drinks, and so on. More like a cafe restaurant.

The main consumers of COSTA Coffee and Starbucks are business office workers.

In 1999, Starbucks of the United States entered Beijing, which opened the competition of domestic cafes, providing "romantic color" to consumers with COSTA coffee and real pot coffee. Then Starbucks and other cafes with "petty bourgeoisie labels" became popular, attracting many young and middle-aged consumers. In addition to selling coffee, Starbucks has spared no effort to convey the "coffee culture" to the Chinese people and to cultivate the habit of drinking coffee among Chinese young people. Can the author think that, after more than a decade of development, more and more people like coffee, Starbucks "plays an important role"?

Yibao Tong Commercial Real Estate once interviewed Zhuang Yuanli, the founder of carving time Cafe. Chuang Tsai classified carving time Cafe as a third-generation cafe. Compared with Starbucks and COSTA, carving time Cafe began to emphasize its personality, entered the market with its own unique tonality, and attracted a large number of followers with deeper connotations. Since the development of a small coffee shop next to a university, Chuang Tsai believes that "openness and communication are the basic rules of the cafe." At the same time, Korean cafes are becoming popular, and "Korean dazzling styles" such as coffee coffee and diffuse coffee have pushed the competition of cafes to the best part.

A variety of themed cafes can be regarded as the fourth generation of cafes, zoo coffee has been popular with animal elements, and then the forest-themed chinchilla cafe has once again attracted the attention of consumers. Such cafes attract not only young consumers, but also children as a fixed group of consumers, bringing them a very stable group of family consumers.

The rising star of the theme cafe-Totoro Cafe

Theme Cafe Personality elements + products

As the fourth generation coffee shop, whether it is zoo coffee or chinchilla coffee shop, its own unique element is one of the magic weapons to seize the market. People living in metropolises not only need a good business environment to communicate with others, but also need a relaxing place for them to rest and relieve stress.

Chinchilla puffs in Chinchilla Cafe

In a sense, the first generation of cafes is difficult to meet the consumer needs of modern people, and its own label has been classified as an old-fashioned cafe that is not suitable for young people. Because Starbucks and COSTA second-generation cafes attach importance to the overturning rate, the vast majority of tables and chairs are not designed for sitting for a long time. On the other hand, more literary cafes such as Korean coffee and Diaoguang coffee are more contemplative; by contrast, cafes with natural themes such as animal elements and forest elements seem to be the best places to relax stress.

In addition, in the product upgrade, the third generation cafe also offers a variety of snacks and light meals, mainly waffles and other snacks. On the other hand, there are basically themed products and snacks that represent their own personalities in themed cafes, such as zoo coffee counters filled with sold animal dolls, chinchilla macarons, chinchilla coffee, chinchilla puffs, and so on, compared with other cafes. The fourth generation of cafes pay more attention to experiential consumption, and products that can move the heart are more likely to be favored by consumers.

Of course, as themed cafes are popular with children, they are slightly noisy on weekends and holidays, which is more suitable for family consumers. It is not suitable for business people to come here to relax at this time. The popularity of Zoo coffee's store in CITIC Plaza on North Sichuan Road has been stable since its opening. Miss Zhu, one of its responsible persons, said that business white-collar workers in CITIC Plaza often choose to come here on weekdays for relaxation and communication, or even for small group discussion meetings. Wilbur Lu of Totoro Cafe also said that due to its geographical location, the attendance rate of the store is not high from morning to 4 p.m. on weekdays, but it is very suitable for business people around here to communicate.

Zoo coffee, which has been highly sought after by family consumers since its opening.

In 2011, Cisco conducted a survey on the current situation of mobile office. The report shows that mobile office work has become a common phenomenon in most enterprises. 32% of employees rely on at least one mobile device during the day.

The increasingly smooth 3G and WiFi wireless networks and ubiquitous cloud services make it convenient and efficient for them to work at home, in hotels and even on trains and cars, with no geographical restrictions, no time for themselves, and no restrictions on not being able to work without the office before. This phenomenon will bring unlimited business opportunities to all types of cafes and maximize their potential and stable customer base.

Show your talents in the process of expansion.

With such a large-scale expansion, how on earth do cafes make money? According to Xin Zixiang, president of ManCoffee (extended location Information), the investment of a ManCoffee store is about 2 million yuan, which usually can recover the cost in two years, and its profit margin is as high as 30%, 40%. This is much higher than the 9.5% of Starbucks (special reading) (expanded location information). The author raised the same question to the Wilbur Lu of Chinchilla Cafe in a timely manner, and the other side also made it clear that cost recovery within a year would not be a problem.

The cost of coffee can be recovered within 2 years, and its profit margin is as high as 30% to 40%.

The author recalled that when he once interviewed Chuang Kui-li of the carving time Cafe, he said: "it was coffee at the beginning, but at that time the pot for making coffee was not very professional. From time to time, some foreign friends would teach me how to make coffee. There was almost no food in the shop. The cafe lost money, but later found that it was more profitable to eat, and began to slowly enrich the menu." Now, in addition to coffee, there are salads, sandwiches, pizza and other foods during carving time.

Even so, not all kinds of food are suitable for sale in cafes. Coffee sells mainly waffles, desserts and Korean hamburgers, not rice. At one point, Zhuang Yili also insisted on not selling rice. He believes that "fresh, healthy, less processed" is the standard of food in cafes.

Coffee is directly used in the open kitchen, all the food production process is transparent and visible, the shape of the coffee shop, internal products are changing with the pace of development. Until the emergence of the fourth generation of themed cafes, zoo coffee's stores were full of cute animal dolls at a high price, echoing their main body; chinchilla puffs and chinchilla macarons are the main elements of the experience of chinchilla cafes. In order to achieve the purpose of enhancing the stickiness of consumers and increasing passenger flow.

Zoo coffee takes animals as its theme element

Behind the different forms of cafes, there is a deep understanding of the social needs of different periods, and various attempts driven by commerce. Coffee is a pricing tag, and the owners of all cafes should thank Starbucks for letting the price of 30 yuan for a cup of coffee be accepted by the Chinese. If coffee is sold for 30 yuan a cup, the food can be sold for 50 yuan or more, and the profit margin will be more objective. In Man Coffee, the best selling product is not coffee, but Chocolate Muffins. A muffin costs 38 yuan, the price is higher than coffee, but the cost is much lower than coffee.

Coffee chain giant Starbucks says it will open 1500 stores in China by 2015; Costa, the fastest store opening in China, has also put forward a plan to open "250 new stores within three years" in recent years; Pacific Coffee, which is backed by China Resources, has more than 100 stores; Man Coffee says it will expand to more than 1500 stores in first-and second-tier cities within two years, about 30% of which are directly owned stores. Since zoo coffee entered Shanghai last year, six stores have opened one after another; the head of Totoro Cafe is also very optimistic about this market, and the later expansion is predictable, and China's coffee shop industry is really hot.